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If you're looking to up your privacy game on the internet in the new year, you can do so for a little less than usual thanks to ExpressVPN's latest deal. Its two-year plans are up to 78 percent off right now: the Advanced tier is on sale for $101 for two years, plus four additional free months. That works out to $3.59 per month during the promotional period.
We've consistently liked ExpressVPN because it's fast, easy to use and widely available across a large global server network. In fact, it's our current pick for best premium VPN. One of the biggest drawbacks has always been its high cost, and this deal temporarily solves that issue.
In our review we were able to get fast download and upload speeds, losing only 7 percent in the former and 2 percent in the latter worldwide. We found that it could unblock Netflix anywhere, and its mobile and desktop apps were simple to operate. We gave ExpressVPN an overall score of 85 out of 100.
The virtual private network service now has three tiers. Basic is cheaper with fewer features, while Pro costs more and adds extra perks like support for 14 simultaneous devices and a password manager. Advanced sits in the middle and includes the password manager but only supports 12 devices.
The Basic plan is $78 right now for 28 months, down from $363, and the Pro plan is $168, down from $560. That's 78 percent and 70 percent off, respectively. All plans carry a 30-day mo
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Fast internet is easy to find in Houston, with some providers offering speeds as high as 8,000Mbps. Here are the best plans for speed and value, picked by CNET experts.
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 OpenAI plans to start testing ads inside of ChatGPT "in the coming weeks." In a blog post published Friday, the company said adult users in the US of its free and Go tiers (more on the latter in a moment) would start seeing sponsored products and services appear below their conversations with its chatbot. "Ads will be clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer," OpenAI said, adding any sponsored spots would not influence the answers ChatGPT generates. "Answers are optimized based on what's most helpful to you."
OpenAI says people won't see ads appear when they're talking to ChatGPT about sensitive subjects like their health, mental state of mind or current politics. The company also won't show ads to teens under the age of 18. As for privacy, OpenAI states it won't share or sell your data with advertisers. The company will also give users the option to disable ad personalization and clear the data it uses to generate sponsored responses. "We'll always offer a way to not see ads in ChatGPT, including a paid tier that's ad-free," OpenAI adds. Users can dismiss ads, at which point they'll be asked to explain why they didn't engage with it.
Users will be able to ask follow-up questions about sponsored content. OpenAI"Given what AI can do, we're excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads. Conversational interfaces create p
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Spotify is raising the prices for its premium subscriptions by $1 to $2 across the board, starting this February. Those are similar figures to the company's last price hike in 2024. Subscribers across the US, Estonia and Latvia will soon receive an email, notifying them that they'll be paying a larger amount for their February bill.
The streaming service said it's raising its prices occasionally to "reflect the value that Spotify delivers," "to continue offering the best possible experience" and to "benefit artists." It reported last year that it paid out $10 billion to music rights-holders in 2024. However, it's worth noting that several Grammy-nominated songwriters boycotted an awards event it hosted to protest the supposed decreasing royalties songwriters are getting from Spotify plays.
Subscribers who choose to keep their accounts will now have to pay $13 instead of $12 a month for an individual plan or $7 instead of $6 for a student plan. The Duo plan will now cost users $19 a month instead of $17, while the Family plan will cost them $22, up $2 from its previous price of $20. Meanwhile, those who decide to cancel their plans can follow our guide right here.
Spotify came under fire late last year for running recruitment ads for ICE. It said the advertisements were part of a larger campaign by the US government that ran across platforms, including Meta and Google. The company also recently confirmed that the campaign has ended that there are
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